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La B​ê​te Blanche

by Storm the Palace

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1.
Wading through thorn Her dress will get torn She's gone a picking the morn Stained cloth and skin Yet again and again She plunges her pale hands in For the treasure that's bled From the soil of the dead Only nettles to share such a bed And she who's seduced By dark, swollen drupes sin on her lips, devil's fruit The briar will always win Old Michaelmas did her in
2.
Here is a tale of riches to rags A bright pebbled shore and a failure to adapt Look for a prince in that shimmering green All that emerges is the carcass of a sheep The rocks have grown sharper and it's started to rain That bright pebbled shore is now so far away Three little mountains appear in your way You'll never see that pebbled shore again Your gathered gold is now glass and amber Slow-burning effigies of former glamour Stop motion monuments pop up and pass Crumbling sentries of what you once had If birds evolved from dinosaurs To cross the great divide These midges were once fairy folk Built to bless and bite It could be ancient chemicals It could be in your mind It could be luck abandoned us You had to be born on the other side
3.
Why do we all have to pretend That we know how things are going to end Why do we fall for the idea that what's gone before Will now happen again Is it just that it's hard to accept Uncertainty's all that you get After the fact then we rationalise Forcing the story to fit Black Swans and Dragon Kings Laid waste to all your deliberating Abandon your plans and ... If fortune is female then accept Thrashing her will have no effect See that she feels her own mind and ideas Let her guide you beyond the world you dreamt You can rant and rave All you want You can stub your toe on the heel of god You're just a mad white dog Trapped in a pond And you’re no match for the ...
4.
Actually, it's not so much about dragons as forests Dense growth, blue flowers, dimly glittering things Moss-covered ruins, candle-lit rooms in crumbling houses Veils of fog and uncertainty Eroticism and decay Clouds of mystery and magic A hint of witchcraft A solitary lantern in the dark, illuminating leaves or snow Shadow-selves, eyes in unexpected places Black twigs and silver droplets and spiders' webs glistening The crow guardians of the vortex Harps, unevenly pitched flutes Ancient choirs phasing against each other My dog is a mythical beast, flashing white between the trees
5.
These creatures are everywhere These are their tell-tale signs A picture of Orkney, a stuffed seal toy a smooth, mottled stone by the bedside I met a selkie one winter's day What happened next, you can guess Our love was like the grey-blue sky Not the worst thing nor the best We live by the sea Cos it's where we feel most at home We yearn for the water Though we know it is too cold Unlike you, I cannot shed So I'm left with this damaged skin I could never have your child For it would have scales, or flippers for limbs And so he slipped away disappeared into the waves Now I must adapt to these landlocked knees Seek other forms of release We're part of the city Though we would rather swim We see the future But we cannot change things If I can't go to the sea The water must come to me (‘til there are fish Swimming in the streets)
6.
We two found this On a walk away from the shore A painted cat with words taped to it ‘Some of the beasts and birds we saw’ We two found this On a sibylline street in the city A cold, confused and dirty dragon A lonely, homeless mystery Two girls found this: On an old, abandoned road Potholes of doubt, with hidden depths And a crow that's privately owned You and I found this In a moment, a pause for thought A faulty rhyme of two straight lines One pushes back, the other forth I saw a swordfish on Seafield Beach They're not often found in the Forth All that was left was the skull and yet It called out One day you will grow into yourself And then you will blossom for all to see And no one will take your for any less Than you were meant to be
7.
8.
A forest conceals a castle a place beyond conventional history Prescribed wisdom Received morality A place beyond science – physics, chemistry You might not notice The exact point you transition from this world to that And in this castle lives a beast Whose power lies in absence The less we see, the stronger he grows This isn't a story of a medieval age It's early modern Industry and imperialism glimmer in its eyes A hint of individualism, freedom Boundaries disintegrating but bodies still encrusted With baroque, convoluted carvings And the swirling curvature of Catholicism and counter-reformation Perhaps to convince themselves That people could be animals They had to argue That a beast could be a man. No mindless minotaur But a creature burdened with lust, regret Rage, repentance, despair She was a merchant's daughter Brimming with New World wealth And the possibility that a woman Might claim her own destiny Write her own chapter Her punishment: imprisonment A lifetime of household management She may know the world now Only through words The library of babel at her disposal They make a terrible couple And by terrible, I mean "terrifying" He finds that beauty is more of a fortress Than rough hands could ever build Shackled and shorn, He runs his tongue over the gap Where his fangs used to throb He is haunted by his phantom claws They make a terrible couple But together they're magnificent Manicures and dirty paws A perfect congregation of flaws Are they still there, in that castle On that accidentally uncharted hill Concealed by larch and pine, Living out their age-old incompatibility In bliss, or ignorance, or grinding boredom Happily ever after?
9.
She Knows 03:31
Violette Was a tragic child In her 12th arrondissement apartment With a monster for a father Til she poisoned him And went shopping after Madeleine Was a Glasgow belle Til she took herself a lover Who threatened to blow her cover But arsenic’s cheap And will mix with cocoa powder She knows she’s going to do it Lizzie B Was a god-fearing girl Whose dad was incredibly stringent Maybe he killed all her pigeons But did she see red? Take her hatchet to a head? Ottilie Married several times Each of her husbands died On a day that she had foreseen As the squat priestess Of a bluebeard clique
10.
There once was a lad who sailed the seven seas And played on a lute so rare He played for kings in far countries He played with grace and care One day he thought it’s time I settled down I’ve had enough of the road So he turned his steed back across the seven seas And set his course for home On a village green he met a charming maid And he took her snow-white hand He said you’ll be my one and only girl And I will be your man He was welcomed home by his family and friends And presented his sweet young bride They looked askance at this strange exotic bird And drew him to one side She's a witch, she's a witch Can't you see, she's a witch And I know you've got needs but not this She's a witch, she's a witch And we'll bet she's a bitch She's a witch, she's a witch, she's a witch He decided not to listen to their fears And brought her to home and hearth And thought all well until one night he woke up in the dark A pale, eery light was coming from the door And called him down the stairs And there on the hearth he saw his sweet young wife In the form of a blood-soaked bear She's a witch, she's a witch Did I dream, did she switch Was that sweet, pretty girl just a trick She's a witch, she's a witch All the curtains will twitch She's a witch, she's a witch, she's a witch He thought if I give her a child maybe then she’ll Cease these nightly spells But the seed he planted grew into a snake And slithered down the well He thought if I chain her to the stove Perhaps she’ll just bake bread But she melted the chains with the fire from her eyes And baked his lute instead He told her to cease her sorceress’s ways He bade her stop or else And the next day he found her naked on the floor Making love with the devil himself She's a witch, what a bitch I've been duped, I've been stitched What the fuck, she's a witch, she's a witch She's a witch, she's a witch From her tail to her tits She's a witch, what a bitch, she's a witch He realised he could take no more So he packed his bags and ran He found himself a non-magical girl And became a family man But sometimes in the dead of night He looks out from his window And from the trees that surrounded his old house Comes an opalescent glow
11.
Caught between a lens and a thought Hedy Lamarr treads the boards Eyes to flesh, not to mind Left her name and world behind Often seen but seldom heard Go sell war bonds, little bird She dreamed of voiceless messages Of hidden thoughts without an end Of frequencies to victory Her true flame gleamed in chemistry Inventing with musician friends Her further depths were undefended The papers gloried her decline She hid her famous face inside The refuge of a telephone line Calculate the weight of what was lost For pride and insecurity at all cost Her ecstasy of glamour fades away While Einstein wore the same shirt every day
12.
Dream House 06:08
In his bed, Donny’s off to sleep But here I am, trying to steal his dreams And pull the duvet off (With a papier mâché fox) In the next Paul drifts in a doze But there’s a sobbing From a disembodied soul Is it the cat? (She’s so ethereal) She gave birth The litter didn’t work Some were malformed One was viable if small And a green frog (That was thrown onto the lawn) In the garden Rose sits in the sun With a wood chip Below her belly button It’s serrated (They can trace her) On the roadside Sally’s in the car which her ex is driving His lover in the back She tried to throw them out But instead she crashed the car into the house She had such little control Such little control In the library Wendy should be writing Her French story But the athlete’s keep disrupting With their lipstick (And their sparkling cocaine) In the lift Jessie is restoring an old painting But ketchup keeps on dripping From the kitchen Where the city planners have their meeting Is it the end of the world? We have such little control And the house sits On a yacht that is the size of several blocks With Christmas trees and horse drawn carriages (Let’s get you to the launch) Up above Tasha’s giant plane is in the sky With no windows on the sides Down below Are pretty alpine buildings in the snow And the whole thing is a knock off game From a 90s film In a basement We have such little control Such little control Annie dreams About the sea And whatever guy she’s lying next to Annie is serene And sleeps so peacefully
13.
14.
Ragnar 02:35
My name is Ragnar I'm the baddest beast of all I come galloping from nowhere And I'll always crash the ball The other brutes they fear me Cos I don't take prisoners But I can be a gent If you just show me the respect that I deserve Nobody so far Has bested my saga I'll eat up the prime of your life You won't know what hit you Don't say I bit you I just pinned you down until you realised Another palace plundered Another virtue burned Your dignity in particles Your carriage overturned A symphony in spandex Glitter in my eyes Bruises under makeup And another world subdued beneath my thighs
15.
The evenings are still now The bluebells are clear I take a deep breath It smells like the shore It tastes like your tears I feel like a child Feel that I'm free Open and soft What's happening to me The world has gone quiet Like everyone’s died So watch what you wish for Watch what's released When you sever the ties That hold you to life All that energy unleashed Let them down sweetly When you break it off Try not to seem Like you don’t give a fuck Try not to smile When you hear that knell But sometimes I wonder Does this make me slightly mad Am I the villain queen Colder than ice cream Am I unredeemably bad All this silence All this wildness All this childhood fantasy Why am I like this Am I the ice queen All hail me Just picture The absence And the empty, city streets A wondrous un-winding Time of the bindweed And the end of history

credits

released November 18, 2022

Jon Bews: violin, vocals
Willa Bews: bagpipes, bass, flute, vocals
Alberto Bravo: drums, vocals
Sophie Dodds: autoharp, field recordings, guitar, harmonium, vocals
Reuben Taylor: accordion, harpsichord, organs, piano, Rhodes, synthesizers, vocals, Wurlitzer piano
Ted + Lily: howls, huffs, rowls, whines, wuffs

Words and music by Sophie Dodds – except tracks 2, 6 and 11 (words by Willa Bews and Sophie Dodds) and tracks 7 and 13 (music by Jon Bews)

Special thanks to the dreamers who contributed to track 12, especially Earl and Vicky Scarth who provided the horse bomb monologue

Recorded in Edinburgh at Madeira Mansions, Rook Manor and Dalry Dungeons

Produced by Sophie Dodds and Reuben Taylor

Mastered by Reuben Taylor

Illustration by Faith Eliott

Design by Cat McLaughlin

Released in conjunction with Abandoned Love Records, with support from Help Musicians UK

© Storm the Palace 2022

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Storm the Palace Edinburgh, UK

Radge folk pop from Edinburgh


"Taking their cues from modern classical, left field folk, and stubborn indie songcraft, Storm The Palace vault over genre barriers without looking back."
Clash Music

We also have a bloody excellent remix album: acrerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/snow-stars-and-public-transport-the-remixes

Illustration by Faith Eliott

Photo by Lucía Balsa-Prados
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